The 10 Least Stressful Jobs of 2012

In the real world, no job is stress free. Every occupation has the potential to cause some sort of pressure for the people who do it every day. Your personality also affects whether you find a job to be stressful or not. While some workers might feel more or less stress in physically challenging situations, others might be deathly afraid of speaking in public, even though there may be very little physical danger. For example, in some surveys, people rank speaking in public as more fear-producing than undergoing a root canal or even dying.

“Our perception of a situation plays an essential role in our stress levels,” says Karen Sothers, a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) expert. “The value or meaning that we assign to an event determines if we react to it as a threat or respond to it as an opportunity.”

The level of stress or the lack of it in the workplace is different for every person. However, the intent of our Jobs Rated Report is to simply assign a relative measure of stress, so that different jobs might be compared along this continuum we all experience.

This year, Medical Records Technicians claimed the top spot for Least Stressful Jobs of 2012, but this top ranking may be short-lived.

“It’s false to say that our job isn’t stressful. There are laws and regulations coming at us left and right that need to be implemented,” says Diana Warner, a Director at the American Health Information Management Association. Warner also emphasized that with all of the regulation changes comes continual training and education.

Not everyone feels their job is stressful, though.

"If I made a client's hair purple or burned it off -- that would be stressful, but it's not like getting shot at," says Joyce Green, a Virginia hairstylist. “Most hairdressers who love their career and are passionate about it, wouldn't find it particularly stressful either." Green says that one of the most stressful parts of her job is the long hours, which can be hard on the body.

While that utopian, stress-free job that many of us dream about exists only in our mind’s eye, there are some professions to take a closer look at if you’re interested in a more stress-free environment. Check out our top picks, according to our Jobs Rated Report:

1. Medical Records Technician

Stress Score: 7.52

Average Income: $32,350

Maintains complete, accurate, and up-to-date medical records for use in treatment, billing, and statistical surveys.